As Farmers for Climate Action has grown, so has our list of highly-engaged farmers and graziers across the country. We need one person to be the key contact point with our existing farmer champions, and also to take the lead in finding and recruiting new farmers. This role will use the the tried-and-true tools of phone calls, face-to-face meetings, stalls and community events.

This role would suit someone who knows how to talk to farmers, build an active volunteer network, and then regularly ask these farmers to get involved in our campaigns, media, capacity building and advocacy work.

The role involves doing two things:

Finding new farmers to become highly active in Farmers for Climate Action. You’ll be responsible for building up a list of 100 key farmer champions that we call on regularly to be part of FCA’s work. You’ll need to be constantly on the hunt for new potential recruits to FCA. This involves looking at agricultural media and social media, and ensuring FCA has an on-ground presence at field days and other key agricultural events.

Asking these farmers to do things with and for Farmers for Climate Action. Things you’ll be asking our active farmers to do include asking them to act as media spokespeople, welcome new members from their region or commodity group to FCA, take part in our campaigns, or deliver a presentation at an agricultural event.

Key skills

Relationship building:

You’re a ‘people person’ (and probably an extrovert) with experience being in a role where you’ve had to build and manage a lot of relationships with a lot of people. This includes over the phone and email, because face-to-face isn’t always possible when our work spans across the country. You’re able to coach and support volunteers to do hard things, because they know you genuinely care about them and will help them succeed.

Confident asking people to do things:

You’re experienced and comfortable asking people to do things. You’re persuasive enough to convince people to volunteer their time and take high-barrier actions that push them out of their comfort zone.You don’t take it personally if someone says no, you just move on to the next person to ask.

Good team player:

You’ve had experience working in small teams where your work is closely connected to others work. This is not the kind of role where you go off on your own with a to-do list and check in once a week. Rather, your work is closely tied into the core business of Farmers for Climate Action. You need to love working with others, including using online collaboration tools to communicate throughout the day.

Organised and efficient:

You’re a no-stuffing-around, get-things-done kind of person. When you say you’ll do something by a certain date, you get it done - even if it means overcoming obstacles. You’ve had experience in a role where there are lots of moving parts to keep track of, like organising stalls or events with volunteers.

You also need:

A drivers licence and the ability to travel at least 2 days/ 1 night per month

To have some experience with or connection to agriculture (e.g. grew up on a farm, have worked in the sector or have worked with farmers). Please don’t apply if you don’t have any farming connections.

Bonus points if you:

Have experience facilitating participatory meetings or trainings

Have experience with ladders of engagement or circles of commitment

Know how to use Nationbuilder (our constituent relationship management software)

Have done community organising, or recruited and managed volunteers before

Come with existing relationships with farmers that you’re willing to draw on to help build Farmers for Climate Action

Typical tasks will include:

Booking stalls at agricultural events (e.g. field days, conferences) and calling local farmers from our database until you’ve found 5-10 people willing to volunteer, then booking a courier to send them materials and briefing them on how to run the stall;

Scouring agricultural media and social media to find farmers who look like they could potentially support the goals of Farmers for Climate Action, then tracking down their contact details and asking whether they’d like to become involved;

Emailing and calling a list of our most highly engaged and interested farmers to ask them to write letters to the editor or call talkback radio in relation to a breaking news story (e.g. on drought and climate change);

Working closely over video link with a small group of farmers to prepare them to meet with their local member of Parliament;

Planning and facilitating educational workshops for farmers around the country, including booking venues, creating agendas, organising catering, travel and other logistics, creating a worthwhile experience for the participants, and post-event evaluation.

Planning and running webinars to increase the skills and knowledge of our highly-engaged farmers, including finding guest presenters and calling farmers to encourage them to attend.

Work arrangements

This is intended to be a full time position, however a 4 day a week arrangement may be considered for the right applicant. Our whole team works remotely, so we are flexible with location as long as it you’re on the Eastern seaboard (Victoria, NSW, ACT or Queensland). Our current staff members are based in Melbourne, Yackandandah, the Yarra Valley, Canberra, and Cooroy. The initial contract period is 1 year with high likelihood of extension.